Zaandam Cruise Reviews - Reviews

The scenery and location for this cruise are the highlights. The ship experience was fine, but nothing above average. The experiences we had with views and wildlife made this a memorable vacation. I was concerned with the lack of cultural diversity among the cruise guests. Perhaps Holland America needs to market to people of other ages, races, and backgrounds. This was a ship full of white-haired, white-skinned senior citizens.

Although the Zaandam was placed into service in 2000, the ship has been well maintained with a high level of cleanliness. Overall the ship is in very good condition, however, there are a couple of area's that could use refurbishment. One area in particular being the Explorations Café. Some of the furniture should have been replaced a long time ago. Shame, as the Explorations Café was a busy spot, especially on sea days.

This is not the ship for the go-go person. It is a smaller ship built for relaxing so you won't find rock climbing walls etc.

This cruise was 18 days with 10 days at sea. I had no problem with the sea days, just relax and enjoy the ride.

The average age of passengers seemed to be a lot higher on this cruise compared to others that I have taken. I don't know if HAL has changed their onboard offerings, but on this cruise, they were very slim.

Despite the sea days and overnight in Honolulu and a couple of late sail always, there was no pool side barbeque, no live entertainment, no buffet with ice carvings etc.

The state room attendant was outstanding. Cabin always neat and any service requests were handled immediately.

I did not eat very often at the Lido Restaurant, but their offerings were varied and slightly above average.

I used the dining room extensively. Attentive and responsive service both for breakfast and lunch. Dinner was a different story. At times service was painfully slow and haphazard, due mostly to the dining room stewards. Some were excellent and others so-so. Menu offerings were varied and the quality of the food was quite good. Great salads offered but at room temperature. Main courses not always served hot.

Service standards are not what they used to be, however, the trend is towards a more casual cruise experience.

The ship would have rated 4 stars, but took one off due to a steward removing the dirty silverware off the salad plate and placed it on the side plate, the intent being I would use dirty silverware for the main course. That did not happen. I did not make a fuss, just reached over and took clean silverware from the unoccupied place settings.

I will sail HAL again. In fact have booked another cruise, but I need to lower my expectations.

The entire staff was great as always. However, with each cruise activities have been either cut back or eliminated. None of the changes experienced have been positive. All seen as cost cutting measures. Most fellow travelers have voiced there similar displeasure. HAL status along cruise lines has dropped considerably and many seasoned travelers will look elsewhere.

Was very good but what I didn't like it was the formal nights people walking to the restaurant in short sleeves shirts and nobody would say a thing. If is the new policy they shouldn't right formal in the booking and on the daily news at the boat.

Seeing Antarctica and the Chilean fjords was amazing! The weather was great and the scenery is unbelievable. Perfect size ship for this cruise.

Be prepared for many days at sea. The ship offers lectures from naturalists and people who have actually lived in Antarctica.   

This was a magnificent cruise indeed. Great food and wonderful service as we have come to expect from HA. My favorite part was the Antarctic landing excursion and the beauty of the Chilean fiords. Argentinian Patagonia looked like hills east of San Diego.

As two star mariners and approaching three stars we had hoped to be offered a suite upgrade to a Neptune Suite and never were. We met people on the ship who were offered that upgrade with no Mariner status at all and for a few thousand dollars more...

The most disappointing (and annoying part) of the cruise was that our Vista stateroom, 7069 was directly below the Lido Deck smoking area. It was not the smoke that was the problem, but the constant scraping of the deck chairs literaly above our bed in the stateroom. We had a hard time sleeping in the morning and in the end wore ear plugs. The acoustics of the stateroom and the metal chairs on a steel deck were surprising loud. We asked the concierge several time to consider moving the area to the port side which had the same chair setup, but no one ever sat there- the smokers were always moving chairs except when sea conditions were bad. So the noise only stopped after midnight. We were disappointed that the staff did not address our concerns. We were placated with apologies, but no action...

Beautiful weather and ports.  Falkland was great site to see penguins. Three perfect days cruising Antarctica, saw whalea, dolpains, seals, ice and Icebergs.   They have four Antarctica experts aboard ship that gave great informational  briefs so we knew what we were seeing.  Drake passage a little rocky. Last three Chilean stops could have been better.  Overall, a once in a lifetime experiencr.

The trip exceeded our expectations.  The views in Antarctica segment had spectacular views of mountians, glaciers and ice bergs.  The seas were smooth and the skies were sunny.

The ship was comfortable, food was great and service excellent.

The shows were fantastic and the daily movies usually were chosen to have something to do with where we were cruising.  For instance:  Evita, and Dance of the Penguins.

Four beautiful days in Antarctica--sunny, mild, lots of ice! Penguins, penguins, and more. Saw glaciers, icebergs as big as the ship, Antarctic research stations, and penguins. Outstanding lectures and commentary by an Expeditions team who had worked with the National Science Foundation in Ant.  Whales on the way. Rounded Cape Horn. Falkland islands weather great, more penguins. Tours of Chile and Argentina ports were good. High winds did stop two of the water tours to see fauna. More penguins in Puerto Madryn, Argentina. Nice visit to ranch in Buenos Aires. I would recommend this cruise to anyone interested in the southern region

The ports of call were good.  Sailing was fine. Onboard activities were limited. Food was fine. Clearly the cruising business has changed in the last year or two. Entertainment time of 45 minutes appeared shorter than on other cruises. Entertainers were good.

Holland America continues its excellent service, from room stewards to dining room staff to the wine steward. Ship is well decorated, but some of the bathrooms in the staterooms need a little more attention based on old tile and grout. We departed from Buenos Aires, visited Falkland Islands, rounded Cape Horn, and ended up in Valpairaso, Chile. Ports were great. However, both the embarkation and debarkation processes were somewhat chaotic. Once we met the HAL rep after getting our baggage in Buenos Aires, the process from then on to get luggage loaded and on the transfer bus had no plan - we finally figured out what to do ourselves. On debarkation, we had an independent tour, and there were no staff to help us figure out where to meet those reps.

We took 2 Delta Skymile shore excursions instead of HAL ones - Buenos Aires tour was disappointing in that they had no intention of returning us to the ship but never told us in the advertisement - caused a HUGE problem in getting back because there was a subway strike and traffic jams. We walked about a mile on unfamiliar streets trying to find port. The other tour, in Valparaiso, was wonderful. Took us from ship to old part of town (but tour description never said we were going to walk 3 miles up and down hills - that needs to be added because we had some elderly, disabled folks on the tour), to Vino del Mar for a nice lunch, and to a winery - and then delivery to airport - great guide.

The favorite parts of this cruise were the itinerary and the Pinnacle Grill specialty restaurant.  Outside of those two items, the rest of this experience was a total disappointment. This cruise was not representative of the Holland America that we experienced in the past. There appeared to be understaffing in all areas, poor communications by personnel, mediocre food quality, inconsistent service experienced with dining room , room service, cabin attendant, front desk and excursion staff.  This was not just our opinion but opined by other cruise customers in conversations during our wait at the airport for our return flights back to our homes. I could never recommend this particular cruise line and ship to others.

My favorite excursions of the cruise was the Falkland Islands. The 4 wheel drive to see the King penguins were awesome. It was great to be able to get close to the penguins and I really felt I was in a special place. My next favorite excursion was see the amazing rapids /water falls and Valcano in Puerto Mont. But the rest of the sights were also pretty great. On the boat staff was very friendly and attentive. In the Lido buffet both management and staff definately focused on details and it showed. They had an interesting series of workshops during the trip, called Digital workshops, which were traing classes on varius windows topics. While I consider my self, pretty up to date, i always seemed to pick up something new. I had a really good trip and am greatful for all there efforts and would highly recommend this trip for consideration.

The Holland America Zaandam cruise was a very scenic trip, the ports of call had a wide variety of excursions - something for everyone, plenty of fun times for all, the ship's cabins were spacious and well appointed for an older ship, the ship's decor was a little plain, not lavish like larger ships, but nice enough.  What we valued most was the itinerary, the price, the quality of the entertainment, the great meals served in the main dining room, and the staff were a fantastic group of friendly, and helpful folks.  An itinerary that was a journey of a lifetime!

The cruise was great! Food very good! The art auction is fun; we did not plan on buying any but did and it looks great at home. Wifi was terrible and expensive. I received a partial refund; thought I deserved a full refund but did not push it. If you should book a southbound cruise and plan to stay in Fairbanks or Denali before the cruise, remember, planes into Fairbanks generally arrive between 10.00 pm and 2.00 am, then you board a bus or train very early the next morning. Plan to stay in Fairbanks for a couple of extra nights, rent a car and explore a little. Might even have to do this one again. The Zaandam is a smaller ship; make is much nicer.

Excellant service and the best view of Alaska. The land/sea tour is the only to really know and see Alaska. Seeing wildlife in Denali is a lifetime experience not to be missed.

Oh yes ! yes ! Yes join the deck walkers to burn those carbs or down size your portions.

  What a wonderful cruise!

Wow. Just full of things to do see and a great deal to choose from.weather it be to do something different or just relax and take in the view. The restaurants are delightful. Art auctions,I never got around to gambling because there was so much to Do. The Glaciers were awsome  because they are. Bigger then life. Yes I would go again with Holland America its a smaller ship less waiting for this and that. The shows from classical to Dance then comedy and magic all happening every night .Do I need to say more? Great trip then take the train to Ancourage and when I go again I am going all the way on train to Denali.

Glacier Bay was by far the highlight of the trip for me.  Since there are 2-days at sea, the on-board ship activities seemed redundant & could use some refresh.

We thoroughly enjoyed our cruise on Holland America's Zaandam.  The most impressive aspects to me were the amazingly upbeat and helpful staff and the immaculate conditions of the ship.  It was very well maintained and spotlessly clean.  They take great measures to assure cleanliness and good health with had washing and sanitation stations throughout the ship, as you board from excursions and particularly in the dining area.  We food the food very good and varied.  And as a special treat we dined in the Pinnacle Restaurant which was an extra charge but was well worth it.  It was exceptional.  Because this was a smaller ship (around 1,400 passengers) we were able to make it all the way into Glacier Bay.  The choice of other ports was great too.  We personally are not into a lot of group activities (which there we plenty of) but were able to join in if we wanted or not...we chose to catch up on some much needed ZZZZ's on sea days.  First vacation that I left where I felt rested.  Great job to everyone who works on this ship!

The cruise did not disappoint in the least. The crew, entertainment, food and shore excursions were excellent.  The added plus, if you are Catholic, is that daily Mass is available.